The cost of Sheriff Terry Johnson’s legal defense against a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit has reached $130,384.

Alamance County has spent this amount from August 2011 through September 2013 in defense of Johnson. The last payment of $22,271 was made Sept. 18 to Turrentine Law Firm.

County Manager Craig Honeycutt said on Tuesday that the county would continue to pay for Johnson’s legal defense and that some of the legal work was being done in-house by County Attorney Clyde Albright and Assistant County Attorney Ben Pierce.

The county’s payments over the past two years have gone to attorney Chuck Kitchen with Turrentine Law Firm, who represents Johnson. The county plans to ask the DOJ to pay back all of the county’s legal fees incurred in the case at the conclusion.

Alamance County Commissioner David Smith said on Tuesday that he would continue to support Johnson’s fight against the DOJ lawsuit and believed that the DOJ was attempting to run up the county’s cost to make it decide to settle the case.

“There would be no settlement that I would be interested in,” Smith said.

Commissioner Tom Manning said on Tuesday that the county remains committed to defending Johnson. Manning said the board has not seen any evidence that Johnson and his department used discriminatory policing practices against Latinos as alleged by the DOJ lawsuit.

The Board of Commissioners approved a request last month made by Albright to transfer $50,000 from a county legal department professional services account to an account specifically set up for the DOJ lawsuit against Johnson to continue funding his defense.

Honeycutt said the county would continue to transfer funds from contingency or other available accounts to the account set up for the DOJ lawsuit on an as-needed basis. He said it was unclear how much the county would end up spending on the case.

It’s been a year since the DOJ issued its formal findings letter detailing the Sheriff’s Office alleged discriminatory policing practices against Latinos.

On December 20, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Johnson claiming “he and his deputies have engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminatory law enforcement directed against Latinos.”

Johnson has repeatedly denied the allegations.

The Justice Department invited the Sheriff’s Office to negotiate a court-enforceable agreement to remedy the violations found. It declined the offer. The trial is set to begin July 7, 2014.

In June 2010, the Justice Department first notified Alamance County and Johnson of an investigation into allegations of discriminatory policing and unconstitutional searches and seizures.